The Writing and Learning Studio (TWLS), Room 1501
TWLS provides instructional handouts and texts, a comfortable study environment, and dropin tutoring for students in any discipline who want to work on college reading strategies, study skills, research papers, essays, or other kinds of writing assignments. Additionally, TWLS offers variable credit courses and workshops on topics such as notetaking, memory improvement, research writing, testtaking, and grammar.

Preliminary Research Report Instructions (DOC file) These are the official instructions for the assignment. Your grade will be based on how well your work follows these instructions.
All of the following samples are in PDF format.

Paper outline This shows the organization your Preliminary Research Report should follow.

Sample paper with callouts showing the various required elements of the assignment.

Sample outlines developed in class, showing in detail what each section of the paper should cover (class notes from April 14, 2011).

This is the first formal bibliography, or works cited list, you will submit. It can still change, but you must submit a list of at least 10 sources relevant to your topic at this time. See below for detailed instructions.

10 Sources These are the official instructions for the assignment. Your grade will be based on how well your work follows these instructions.

Taking Purposeful Research Notes from the Landmark School in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts. A good system for keeping your notes organized. I think they make some unsupportable claims for their method, when they say that they've eliminated the problem of having to (re-)organize after taking notes. You often don't know what the subtopics are until you've taken your notes and played around with various possible ways of organizing information and ideas. Also, this seems geared toward a shorter and simpler sort of paper than students write in 102--more a report than a persuasive argument based on research. That said, however, I think the method is a good one.

Describing Sources provides a good and bad example of describing how a source answers the research question.

Why a Debate? This discusses the importance of debate in scholarship, and your research in particular.

Literature Review Sample (DOC file) This is a made-up example showing the correct format for the assignment. The articles are real, but the summaries and critiques are fictional. It is just here to help you understand how to do the assignment.

Excerpts from two actual scholarly sources, containing the literature review portion of those articles (DOC file).

Sentence Outline Instructions (DOC file) These are the official instructions for the assignment. Your grade will be based on how well your work follows these instructions.

Sentence Outline Examples from class on Tuesday, February 21, 2012. Note that one of these examples (the polar bear one) is incomplete. They show the first step in the process of developing a sentence outline, but a complete outline would add sub-points for all the main points, and possibly sub-sub-points as well.

Documenting Sources: MLA Style: English and Other Humanities (required), part of the Diana Hacker research and documentation website (optional). The two pages below, also from the Hacker website, give the details on how to format citations. They are not so much for reading as a reference work to consult when taking notes, writing the paper and formatting the works cited list. But I do expect you to demonstrate your understanding of this material by correctly citing your sources.

You have the option of earning extra credit worth up to 5% of the final grade by writing an extra credit assignment. You can also earn a little extra credit, worth the equivalent of two homework assignments (approximately 1%), by doing some work to prepare for this assignment.

Obstacles to Participation, class notes from April 22, 2011, from our brainstorming discussion about what stops us from being active in regard to issues we care about, and ways to overcome those obstacles.